Prayer is meant to act as a complement to prudent action not as a replacement Gita 11.40

Transcript

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Prayer is meant to act as a compliment to prudent action not as a replacement some people think of prayer as a magic wand to solve all problems or as a mystical shield to guard against all problems however Gita wisdom doesn’t endorse prayer in any way as a replacement for practical action those who for example in a pandemic claim that if they are praying they will be protected from infection just because of their praying often end up getting infected and causing infection to all those who had come to congregate for praying the Gita stresses that prayer is meant to compliment prudent action not replace prudent action this principle that while being prayerful we need to take responsibility we need to act responsibly thoughtfully expertly is demonstrated in the Gita itself on encountering the universal form Krishna of Krishna Arjuna offers spontaneous prayers filled with emotion and erudition this is all narrated in the 11th chapter where 15 to 32 31 describe Arjuna’s vision of the universal form and then 36 to 46 verses in the 11th chapter describe Arjuna’s prayers within those prayers for example Arjuna acknowledges that the divine is omnipresent and omniscient and thus he offers prostrated obeisances in all directions I offer you obeisances from the front and behind I offer you obeisances from all directions all you who are filled with unlimited power your achievements are inexhaustible you pervade everything and thus you are everything though Arjuna prays to the divine and acknowledges the omnipotence of the divine he doesn’t in any way imagine that such prayer alone will protect him in the subsequent war he picks up his bow in readiness to fight as depicted in the conclusion of the Gita 1878 he has picked up his bow and in the subsequent Kurukshetra war Arjuna is seen to fight diligently using all his archery skills he never once presumes that just his prayerful attitude will protect him from all danger or exempt him from the responsibility to use his archery ability fully and resourcefully so we need to so if prayer does not replace prudent action then why do we need to pray at all what does prayer do it complements prudent action by providing us composure concentration and connection composure whenever we do something challenging our mind often worries about and obsesses over the things that are not in our control praying reminds us that those things beyond our control are not entirely out of control they will be managed by intelligence far bigger than ours concentration once we entrust the things beyond our control to the divine through prayer we are also reminded by prayer to wholeheartedly do our part and concentrate on that the Bhagavad Gita states that we all are parts of the divine and as the parts of the divine each one of us has to play our part using all our god given abilities and resources connection prayer makes us spiritually grounded and connected thereafter whatever we do and whatever result we get from what we do success or failure we go through it in a way that increases our spiritual self understanding and helps us improve ourselves, emerge better thereby progressing toward becoming the best we can be and fulfilling our ultimate